By EDWARD WONG JULY 12, 2014
BEIJING — A prominent Chinese state television anchor known for his strident efforts to champion China’s political and economic systems has been detained by the authorities, the state news media reported on Saturday.
The television anchor, Rui Chenggang, a popular host of a financial news program on China Central Television, or CCTV, was taken away by officials on Friday, along with Li Yong, the vice director of financial news for the network, according to People’s Daily, the official organ of the Communist Party. People’s Daily posted the news on Saturday evening on Twitter and on its Chinese microblog.
The detention of Mr. Rui appears to have taken place abruptly on Friday. That evening, his program, “Economic News,” was broadcast with an empty anchor’s chair and microphone, which immediately alerted Chinese political observers to the fact that something was amiss. For weeks, rumors had circulated that a widening government investigation into corruption at CCTV would implicate Mr. Rui. The co-anchor of “Economic News,” Xie Yingying, hosted the program alone on Friday.
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Rui Chenggang, a popular host of a financial news program on China Central Television. Credit Eric Piermont/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A senior journalist at CCTV said Saturday that colleagues had told him in the morning that they had been ordered to remove content related to Mr. Rui from the network’s website and to scrap on-air advertisements featuring him and his show.
Mr. Rui is the most well-known celebrity to have been ensnared in a broad anticorruption campaign being overseen by President Xi Jinping. Mr. Xi, who is also the leader of the Communist Party, has said the party has been weakened by lack of discipline among its more than 80 million members. Last month, the party announced that Xu Caihou, a former top general, was being stripped of party membership and handed over to investigators looking into allegations of corrupt practices, including the selling of military posts. Mr. Xu’s purge was the biggest one in the ranks of the People’s Liberation Army in many years.